Strawberries, an angel, a dragonfly and a bee that might be a wasp

After not having any homegrown strawberries so far this year, and pretty much giving up on them, the recent heavy rainfall along with lots of sunshine has had berries ripening like crazy. I've been starting every day with fresh fruit for breakfast, which is a lovely treat.

This last week's been oddly enjoyable. The house is looking much better after it's ever-so-late-spring-clean, and hopefully I can keep it this way. Out in the garden everything's windswept and there're lots of plants leaning drunkenly over, me neglecting to stake them.

I made a couple of little changes to the angel fabric collage, not having been entirely satisfied with her face.

I outlined the eyes with thread and added a faint indication of a nose! This textile piece ended up being about 21 x 23cm, and it occurred to me that I might make a smaller version and use it to decorate a Christmas card. (Sorry to mention the 'Ch' word in June, but you have to think ahead when it comes to handmade goodies.) That thought led me to think about fabric gift tags, made like mini collages.

This was a quick attempt, to get a feel for what size of gift tag and how I'd make it. I also began making a smaller version of - not the angel - but the green and pink dragonfly design from a few days ago.

I've made the background and added some quilting lines, and have the dragonfly pieces cut out and ready to applique on. That'll keep me occupied tomorrow while listening to 'The Archers' omnibus, making it another Slow Stitch Sunday.

I've also started yet another project, which is silly, I know. Really, I should finish one thing before embarking on something else, but I like flitting between tasks. It keeps them interesting. After making that fabric leopard's head brooch a while back, I fancied making a bee brooch. Or it might turn out to look more wasp-like. Not sure yet. I'll let you know how it turns out.

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Taking a blog break ...

Hello! And goodbye, at least for now. The blog's on hold for a little while as I'm easing myself into 2026 gradually. I'm still stitching and reading and enjoying life with Badger the cat. Even though he treats my sofa like a giant scratching post!

Badger!

Here's Badger, looking like the little cutie-pie he is. He's settled in so well, is absurdly affectionate and eats anything and everything I put in his food bowl. The only fault I can find is that he likes to sharpen his claws on the side of my sofa. This is despite having two scratching posts, one of which is part of a cat tower that's taller than I am! I may have to try trimming his claws, but I don't know how Badger will react to that. Anyway, expect to see more photos of him, so sorry in advance for any of you who aren't feline fans. Apart from gazing in admiration at the cat I've continued to experiment with embroidery. I really can't decide whether this mainly pink piece of stitching is something I like or just a dog's dinner of a mess. This is another embroidery I've been stitching. Frankly, at the moment it looks like it should be lobbed straight into the bin. I'd painted with a mix of watercolour pa...

Final post for 2025 (I think. I mean, unless anything amazingly wonderful happens that I can't keep to myself any longer ...)

The days are marching by at record speed, and I've finally - possibly - bought all the presents I need to buy and written all the Christmas cards I need to send. I decided not to put up a full-sized tree this year as I'm convinced Badger the cat would simply view it as a climbing frame, and I'd find it toppled on a daily basis. Instead, there's a small green tree, and a simple white twiggy one that has lots of vintage baubles dangling from it. To be honest, I prefer the twiggy one, so the green tree might be permanently retired from now on. I've not gone crazy with the decorations, but there are various strings of fairy lights that look so pretty when they're lit. I have - between internet shopping and baking mince pies - made a little fishy pin cushion, decorated with seed stitches, French knots, chain stitch and stem stitch. I'm on the look-out for grey tweedy material to make another fish as I think that'd look better than plain ...

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